罗马教廷(papacy)
天主教会的中央管理体系。早期的教会由各主教领导，直到西元1世纪末为止对罗马主教有着特别的尊敬。3世纪时圣西普里安对这一崇高职位提出了挑战。4～5世纪君士坦丁堡的主教权力提升，对罗马主教造成威胁，这种对立情况在1054年教会分裂时达到高潮。罗马帝国瓦解後，教廷在查理曼及其继任者的羽翼下受到保护。9～10世纪德意志皇帝们控制了教廷。1059年教宗利奥九世回应枢机主教学院，授予其权力特别命名一个新的教宗。为了建立教廷超越各国的至高无上权力，圣格列高利七世於1075年颁布法令，称平民统治者不能授予教会人员的世俗权力（参阅Investiture Controversy），并将德意志的亨利四世逐出教会。在接下来的几个世纪里，教廷的世俗气和腐败以及在亚威农教廷发生的「巴比伦之囚」事件导致了西部教会分裂，最後并造成宗教改革运动。特伦托会议则宣布了反宗教改革。在19世纪，教廷国划归新成立的义大利王国，教廷也因此失去了它仅存的世俗的权力，但仍维持一个保守的宗教地位，它在宣称教义方面永无谬误，且拥护教宗是教会的绝对领导者。第二次梵谛冈会议给予主教、牧师和俗人更多的发言权。亦请参阅Roman Catholicism。
English version：
papacy
System of central government of the Roman Catholic church. Bishops led the early Church, with the bishop of Rome being accorded special respect by the end of the 1st century AD. St. Cyprian challenged that position of honor in the 3rd century, and in the 4th-5th century the power of the see of Constantinople rose to challenge that of Rome; the rivalry would culminate in the Schism of 1054 between the Eastern and Western Churches. After the collapse of the Roman empire, the papacy found protection under the wing of Charlemagne and his successors; in the 9th-10th century the German emperors controlled it. In 1059 Pope Leo IX responded by vesting the right to name a new pope exclusively with the College of Cardinals. To establish the papacy's supremacy over the state, Gregory VII decreed in 1075 that civil rulers could not invest churchmen with temporal power (see Investiture Controversy) and excommunicated Henry IV of Germany. In the next centuries, the worldliness and corruption of the papal court and the “Babylonian Captivity” of the papacy at Avignon (see Avignon papacy) led to the Western Schism and eventually to the Reformation. The Council of Trent inaugurated the Counter-Reformation. In the 19th century the papacy lost its remaining temporal powers when the Papal States were incorporated into the new Kingdom of Italy. It maintained a conservative religious position, proclaiming infallibility in doctrinal matters and espousing the idea that the pope is the absolute ruler of the church. The Second Vatican Council gave the bishops, clergy, and laity more voice. See also Roman Catholicism.